after completing his mission cooke decided to investigate the state of readiness of spanish forces in manila himself . he was also intrigued by reports that a ship carrying treasure was due to sail from manila , which would make a valuable prize . sailing in sy ##bill ##e and accompanied by captain pu ##lten ##ey malcolm in fox , cooke reached the spanish capital on 13 january 1798 . anchored in manila bay , cooke pretended that his ships were french vessels and successfully lured successive boat ##load ##s of spanish officials aboard , taking them prisoner in turn . once he had determined from his captives the state of defences in manila , that the treasure ship had been un ##loaded at ca ##vite and that
after completing his mission cooke decided to investigate the state of readiness of spanish forces in manila himself. he was also intrigued by reports that a ship carrying treasure was due to sail from manila, which would make a valuable prize. sailing in sybille and accompanied by captain pulteney malcolm in fox, cooke reached the spanish capital on 13 january 1798. anchored in manila bay, cooke pretended that his ships were french vessels and successfully lured successive boatloads of spanish officials aboard, taking them prisoner in turn. once he had determined from his captives the state of defences in manila, that the treasure ship had been unloaded at cavite and that